This invention relates to apparatus for realistically training artillery crews in the activities associated with the loading and firing of an artillery piece or other cannon system.
In the past, providing realistic training to crews on cannon systems has often necessitated conducting training firings of the cannon system using live ammunition. This is not only expensive and is necessarily restricted to approved and often remote areas, it is also hazardous to an inexperienced crew. To reduce such problems, cannon firing trainers have been developed which use dummy ammunition and reduced propellant charges. Although this reduces the costs and some of the problems associated with conducting training firings using live ammunition, known firing trainers are not entirely satisfactory. The reduced propellant charges employed must be sufficient to ensure that the dummy projectiles are expelled from the gun tube. However, the force produced by such reduced propellant charges is insufficient to recoil the cannon realistically. Accordingly, some known trainers have employed sensors for detecting the passage of the dummy projectile through the gun muzzle and rather complicated systems for moving the gun barrel through a recoil-counterrecoil cycle each time a round is fired. Since rounds are actually fired, such trainers must still be used in restricted areas and still pose some hazards to personnel. Moreover, local ordinances aimed at reducing noise levels may pose restrictions on training operations which involve actual firing of the cannon system.
It is desirable to provide cannon system training apparatus which enables realistic training of personnel on all of the loading and firing activities associated with operating a cannon system, while avoiding the disadvantages of known training apparatus, and it is to this end that the present invention is directed.